Mayor's Minutes - June 5th, 2025 - CCA & Renaming to Energy Way

In this edition of Mayor’s Minutes, Mayor Walker recaps the June 5th City Council meeting, including the renaming of a portion of 103rd Street to Energy Way and expansion of the Downtown Common Consumption Area (CCA) hours of operation.

Meeting agendas and supporting documents are always available at: https://desotoks.us/AgendaCenter

 

00:00 Welcome to Mayor's Minutes

00:26 Key Items from the Consent Agenda

01:18 New Business Highlights

02:21 City Hall Renovation Updates

02:52 2026 Budget Focus

03:17 Community Events Recap

04:09 Closing Remarks

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hello De Soto, and welcome back to Mayor's Minutes.
Your quick, clear recap of what's happening at City Hall.
I'm Mayor Rick Walker, and today I'm recapping our June 5th City Council meeting, where we tackled infrastructure, development, and budget planning, while continuing to focus on what makes De Soto home.
Let's get into it.
We had a full agenda, so here's a quick rundown of the key items. 6 00:00:26,913.333333333 --> 00:00:33,990 From the consent agenda, one notable item was the expansion of the hours for the Downtown Common Consumption Area, or CCA.

(00:34):
The CCA now includes Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 4pm to 10pm, and on Fridays it starts earlier at 1pm.
This follows a successful pilot program and reflects strong support from our downtown businesses.
.761666667Other highlights from the consent agenda are: We approved a special council meeting for June 18th; we moved the regular Council meeting to this date to avoid the Juneteenth holiday. 10 00:00:57,44.761666667 --> 00:01:10,664.761666667 We approved firework sales permits for four vendors: The De Soto VFW Post on 84th Street, Courtney Rakestraw at the Jake's Building, Garrett's Worldwide Fireworks at Harp's parking lot, and Shay's Fireworks on Lexington Avenue. 11 00:01:10,994.761666667 --> 00:01:17,958.794183225 We also approved the July 4th fireworks display contract with Walden Company who've been handling our show since 2006. 12 00:01:18,380.460849892 --> 00:01:28,160.460849892 Moving into new business, a special moment for me and one that I think was very meaningful for the entire community was the official renaming of part of a 103rd Street to Energy Way. 13 00:01:28,515.51133412 --> 00:01:31,365.51133412 It's not just about changing a name on a street sign. 14 00:01:31,485.51133412 --> 00:01:37,325.51133412 It's about recognizing the new energy investment and the opportunity that Panasonic has brought to De Soto. 15 00:01:37,602.178000786 --> 00:01:47,316.78073148 When they chose our city for their EV battery facility, they put De Soto on the map, literally and figuratively, as part of the national conversation about innovation and sustainability. 16 00:01:47,893.44739814 --> 00:01:50,258.44739814 Energy way symbolizes the clean energy future. 17 00:01:50,258.44739814 --> 00:01:58,88.44739814 We're helping to build the creation of new jobs and careers for our residents, and the kind of public-private collaboration that gets big things done. 18 00:01:58,508.44739814 --> 00:02:07,468.44739814 We're proud to have Panasonic as a partner in De Soto's future, and I'm proud what we've marked this partnership in a way that will be part of our city's map for generations to come. 19 00:02:08,5.11406481 --> 00:02:17,936.29306481 In other business, we received an annual report from the Northwest Consolidated Fire District which showed, a continued increase in staffing, training, and readiness as our city expands. 20 00:02:17,936.29306481 --> 00:02:21,86.29306481 And Chief Maxton shared progress on the new fire station. 21 00:02:21,529.62639814 --> 00:02:28,879.62639814 On our City Hall renovation project, the Council approved several change orders to address some additional issues uncovered during demo. 22 00:02:29,9.62639814 --> 00:02:34,158.44706481 One of those was structural issues related to the storm refuge in the basement. 23 00:02:34,188.44706481 --> 00:02:42,696.41771787 We uncovered, some structural damage, that needed to be addressed, which is part of why the storm refuge has been closed much longer than anticipated during the project planning. 24 00:02:43,33.08438454 --> 00:02:50,998.42473148 Just one of the things that happens in, renovations in old buildings, but we're working through it and going to get City Hall standing tall. 25 00:02:51,338.13058722 --> 00:02:54,908.13058722 Our last regular agenda item was our 2026 Budget. 26 00:02:55,198.13058722 --> 00:03:03,421.46392055 The key takeaway was that– we're going to focus on a budget that maintains or even reduces residential property taxes when compared with last year. 27 00:03:03,451.46392055 --> 00:03:08,491.46392055 And that's in real dollars, not just a mill levy rate, but the dollars that you actually pay outta your pocket. 28 00:03:08,971.46392055 --> 00:03:16,177.83626296 So as property values rise, we're committed to making sure that De Soto families aren't paying more, unless that's absolutely necessary. 29 00:03:16,897.83626296 --> 00:03:20,867.83626296 Now, switching gears, man, we had a fun weekend, a lot going on in De Soto. 30 00:03:21,197.83626296 --> 00:03:22,997.83626296 We had a fantastic Friday night. 31 00:03:23,47.83626296 --> 00:03:26,947.83626296 Downtown, the Suburbans put on a great show, we had a great crowd. 32 00:03:26,947.83626296 --> 00:03:28,567.83626296 The weather cooperated. 33 00:03:28,647.83626296 --> 00:03:31,167.83626296 And then on Saturday we had two great events. 34 00:03:31,267.83626296 --> 00:03:34,177.83626296 In the morning we had a Touch-A-Truck event down at Miller Park. 35 00:03:34,367.83626296 --> 00:03:37,137.83626296 Well attended- Monica and I went, checked things out. 36 00:03:37,137.83626296 --> 00:03:41,724.70073384 And then we rode our bikes on over to the Kids Fishing Derby at Lexington Lake. 37 00:03:41,921.3674005 --> 00:03:43,331.3674005 Uh, we did get a little wet. 38 00:03:43,361.3674005 --> 00:03:46,421.3674005 We got there in time for the award ceremony and so did the rain. 39 00:03:46,421.3674005 --> 00:03:50,421.3674005 But, I'd like to give a shoutout to Kerri Hoschouer and Kaw Valley Sportsman. 40 00:03:50,535.26762726 --> 00:03:55,628.11448327 We have been proud as a City to partner with them for a number of years to put this event on. 41 00:03:55,718.11448327 --> 00:04:02,233.11448327 It always brings a lot of kids out, have a great time fishing and, having fun at Lexington Lake Park. 42 00:04:02,491.14316052 --> 00:04:07,31.14316052 You could tell a lot of fish were caught, a lot of fun was had, and it's just a great community event. 43 00:04:07,211.14316052 --> 00:04:11,55.02071154 So, I'd like to thank you all for being engaged in our community. 44 00:04:11,383.66037367 --> 00:04:13,990.9166095 As always, feel free to reach out if you have questions. 45 00:04:14,370.9166095 --> 00:04:19,928.7166095 Remember that full Council materials are always available on the City website and I think that's it for this week. 46 00:04:20,78.7166095 --> 00:04:21,8.7166095 Thanks for listening. 47 00:04:21,158.7166095 --> 00:04:22,208.7166095 I'll see you around town.